Once upon a time, not too long ago, when screenwriter Shane Black put pen to paper, he would get an offer from Hollywood studios for the script. After taking a few years off, he returns to Hollywood with a new script, Kiss. Kiss, Bang, Bang and gets shot down by development executives who have forgetten that he wrote Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout. Black inquires to his old friend, producer Joel Silver, and for a modest budget, winds up directing an entertaining murder-mystery that also pokes fun at the Hollywood life, with nods to pulp novels of the 40′s and 50′s-but set in present day.

One running gag throughout the film is the Raymond Chandler-esue narration provided by Harry (Robert Downey Jr.) who keeps the tone light and as he narrates, the film will ‘stop’ in spots and hang there, as if caught in a projector when he ‘forgets something’ or ‘needs to backtrack for a second’. While the story by his point of view is mildly aware of itself, it’s his story and from his perspective, anything, if not everything, goes. Think of it like a distant cousin to one of those ‘Moonlighting’ TV episodes from the 80′s, where an occasional plot string would hit a roadblock, and the characters would then go off and do a sight gag or other outrageous thing to help get to the end of the episode. While ‘Bang, Bang’ doesn’t do anything drastic like characters running around studio backlots from thier own movie, there are a few light moments, where even in flashbacks, ‘extras’ are asked to move out of the way, so the audience can catch a vital clue. The setup for the film, where former kid magician Harry, now a small time thief, eludes police by accidentally stepping into a acting audition. He is convincing in the part he’s asked to read for- it mirrors a real life occurance that happened minutes before- and is whisked off to L.A. to meet with a real life private investigator, “Gay” Perry (Val Kilmer). Harry’s ‘role’ is that of a detective, so he must observe his new partner to know the ropes of the character.

Harry reunites with a lost childhood love, aspiring actress Harmony (Michelle Monaghan) and since she’s convinced he’s a PI, she asks him to find out if there was any foul play over the death of a close relative. At the same time, he and Perry stumble onto a real murder plot when they weren’t supposed to. It may have something to do with Harmony, or it may not. The murder plot, as it unfolds, seems to be loosely inspired by one of the pulp novels by Brett Halliday…which in turn loosely inspired the film itself. While humorous and never talking itself seriously, the film rolls around at a pace where in the end everything makes sense, but if you had your whodunit notepads out you would be better off as a graffiti artist. One small extremely minor disappointment to me was the two-second ‘Wierd Science’ reunion where at a party the “Gift Bag Girl” – Judie Aronson- hands our heroes a bag of knicknacks. Most woould miss it, I suppose, might have worked if Robert Rustler was also at the party. But I was more disppointed in the underusing of Shannon Sassamon, aka “The Pink Haired Lady”. The only time we see the actresses’ face is in a close ups when she’s on the floor. Still, it’s the only real nitpick I had of the film, as one of Downey Jr.’s previous films was the underrated ‘Singining Detective” , although it has been awhile since I seen a format like ‘Bang’- and it would be a piece of otherwise good storytelling that audiences are otherwise aren’t used to.

They missed out.

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Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang

Written & Directed by : Shane Black
Starring Val Kilmer, Robert Downey Jr.,Michelle Monaghan, Shannyn Sossamon and Corbin Bernsen